


To Comfort the Young

by Merfilly



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Prophetic Visions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-07
Updated: 2017-08-07
Packaged: 2018-12-12 07:34:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11732475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: Shaak Ti arrives back at the Temple and goes to help the newest of Plo's Foundlings.





	To Comfort the Young

When Plo Koon asked Shaak Ti to do anything, she generally settled back from whatever she had on her agenda and did it. It was far more than gratitude for having helped train her into the Knight she had become. It was more than acknowledging that he had mentored her to the point of being comfortable as a Master on the Council of Reconciliation. 

No, she counted Plo as one of her true friends, and the man so rarely asked for assistance with the unusual younglings he brought back to the Temple as it was. So, as she landed from her latest negotiation (in which she had not, a single time, pulled her lightsaber out), she was already planning to go down to the creche and meet the youngling he was concerned about.

As luck would have it, she had arrived during one of the child's sleeping periods, allowing her to observe. Small, but probably three years of age, if she recalled the development of her people's young correctly. Plo had mentioned in his repeated messages to her about this foundling that she had already imprinted fully on her culture, had almost been abducted by bounty hunters, and that she was having trouble using Basic to talk to everyone.

That last was troubling, as Plo said he knew she understood it, and was highly intelligent, but something in her dreaming mind was making the child feel unsafe and it had only begun in the Temple. Was the girl going to be able to adapt, or did she need to go home? What were the terrifying swells of water and storms that permeated her dreams, and the rare glimpse of an almost human reflection against a view port?

Shaak Ti settled in the gliding chair that moved silently, watching the small one sleep, taking note of the others present. A wide array of children from the galaxy, but only one, this one truly interested the woman who had chosen to never train another padawan. The child was the first foundling since Lissarkh that had been brought by the Kel Dor Master, an odd thing for a man who spent almost as much time exploring the non-human planets as he did serving as consular to Senators.

Lissarkh's training had been delayed, as Plo had opted to be her master, yet he'd had to finish training Bultar Swan, a human, in order to fulfill his pledge to a dead Jedi.

Shaak frowned; her mind was fixating on deaths and the lower number of infants in the creche, she realized.

That was entirely too negative for this area of the Temple. There had been enough incidents of bullying, after all, not all of which had been dealt with before they became issues.

She let her eyes rest on the small Togruta as the youngling began to twitch, and thought over Plo's hearty but worried entreaties in his messages to her. Highly intelligent, very inquisitive… and small. Shaak Ti made a mental note to keep an eye on her — 

— and her thoughts cut off as there were high, above-human range, whistles escaping the child, a plea to stop. Shaak Ti moved to the child's side, reaching down to rest a hand on her shoulder, opening to the Force to taste the fear and … resolve? Yes, that was resolve, and it echoed strangely in the child Shaak had not yet met properly.

"Shh, shh, you are safe," Shaak said softly, using the Togruti she had painstakingly learned as a woman bent on understanding her culture.

The child's eyes flashed open, the light catching them just right to cause that faint glow that so many predatory species had. There was no true recognition, not in the look or the Force, but Shaak suddenly found herself holding a small youngling of her species, the Force knitting around them both as the nightmare images spiraled between them.

Vast oceans — anathema to many Togruta for the way it confined their montrals from being useful — were frothing with white caps, brought on by the roil of a storm above. Something in the water, an image of a hand possibly, just sinking below the waves, had captured the attention of the youngling, trapped between sleep and waking by the horrible images.

Shaak realized the hand was small, much like the one knotted in her robe.

Where was this? Shili boasted no such oceans, and Plo had said the child was a native, had never been off-planet, or the physical would have triggered an alert about her midichlorians. How had the child picked up such a nightmare? Was the hand belonging to Shaak's small burden, or another?

The Force rolled around them both, yet Shaak was no closer to answers for Plo than when he first explained it to her. She settled to hold the small one, using various tricks to still her mind, so that proper sleep could come… yet even that took more minutes and will than expected.

"I fear, little one, you have a long and winding road in the Force, if this is more vision than dream," she murmured, holding her burden close and soothing her until sleep finally settled.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic of] To Comfort the Young](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13760346) by [exmanhater](https://archiveofourown.org/users/exmanhater/pseuds/exmanhater)




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